Hydrogen is regarded as a suitable energy carrier worldwide and several filling stations have already been set up in various countries of the world to operate vehicles. An essential and critical aspect in using hydrogen is    a) the warehousing or storage of hydrogen, which, as is known, is only possible at a low density,    b) the danger of explosion coming from pure hydrogen in a mixture with air,    c) the design for apparatus for high pressures and/or low temperatures that have to be used for storage, is most cost-intensive.
To date, a series of hydrogen storage methods have been investigated: adsorptive, absorptive, as a liquid, as a highly compressed gas. The disadvantage of all the methods is their low energy density per volume and the usually high costs of the carrier.
The previously established methods for storing hydrogen as a liquid and under pressure represent technical solutions, which were hitherto not to exist in large quantities of hydrogen in the publicly accessible area and certainly not in filling stations—in particular because of the high technical outlay, the relatively high costs connected therewith and the safety concerns. Thus, containers with compressed hydrogen are difficult to seal and hydrogen explodes or detonates with shock waves >1,000 m/s in almost every mixture of 4-75% with air. In addition, the minimum ignition energy is lower than in other gaseous materials. Hydrogen is classified as highly flammable (F+) and can ignite spontaneously at high exit speeds, as also in the case of other gases. The formula conversion when exploding with air is very high at 286 kJ/mol.
It is therefore desirable to provide a technology for storage at filling stations that avoids the risks of pure hydrogen.
Alternative storage forms for hydrogen are known. Various aromatic compounds, in particular condensed polycyclic hydrocarbons, which can be used as hydrogen stores, are described in EP 1475349 A1 and DE 10 2012 221 809 A1. The substances described are used in mobile as well as in stationary systems. A method and an arrangement for the energy supply of detached buildings is described in DE 10 2011 111 565A1.